Configuring iodbc to use FreeTDS for MS SQL Server under cygwin

Question

I am trying to use RODBC to connect to a SQL Server database from R under cygwin.

I installed libiobbc and libiodbc-devel , which, as I understand it, provide the driver manager who needs the RODBC package.

I installed freetds , which, as I understand it, provides an ODBC driver that can connect to the MS SQL server database. I used my tsql command-line tsql to confirm that I can connect to SQL Server.

Now I understand the task of pointing the driver manager (iODBC) to the driver (freeTDS) so that I can connect to the SQL Server database from the R RODBC library

The freeTDS user guide indicates that the driver that freeTDS provides should be in /usr/local/freetds/lib/libtdsodbc.so , and something like the following should define this driver for idobc:

 ; ; odbcinst.ini ; [FreeTDS] Driver = /usr/local/freetds/lib/libtdsodbc.so 

But I don't have libtdsodbc.so on my system and it seems that the cygwin freetds package freetds not provide it ( list of installed binaries and support files )

How to configure idobc to use the freeTDS driver to connect to MS SQL?

EDIT

A colleague located /lib/cygtdsodbc.dll and /usr/lib/cygtdsodbc.dll on my system. Perhaps this is the equivalent of cygwin libtdsodbc.so ?

I created an odbcinst.ini file with the following contents to determine the driver:

 [ODBC Drivers] FreeTDS = Installed [FreeTDS] Driver = /usr/lib/cygtdsodbc.dll 

and the odbc.ini file that defines the my_db data my_db using the driver above:

 [ODBC Data Sources] my_db = FreeTDS [my_db] Driver = /usr/lib/cygtdsodbc.dll Database = db_name Host = server_dns_name Port = 1433 

running iodbctest to check something gives

 $ iodbctest iODBC Demonstration program This program shows an interactive SQL processor Driver Manager: 03.52.0812.0326 Enter ODBC connect string (? shows list): ? DSN | Driver ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ my_db | FreeTDS Enter ODBC connect string (? shows list): my_db 1: SQLDriverConnect = [iODBC][Driver Manager]Driver SQLAllocEnv() failed (0) SQLSTATE=IM004 1: ODBC_Connect = [iODBC][Driver Manager]Driver SQLAllocEnv() failed (0) SQLSTATE=IM004 

Answer 1

The iodbctest program indicates that it cannot find my_db ; what is your hint that it is not configured correctly.

Look again at the FreeTDS User Guide, in particular, what properties may and may not be in odbc.ini . You need the server or servername property in your odbc.ini , depending on whether you want to use the freetds.conf file to identify the server.